When American tanks tore through her neighborhood, ripping up the roads as they uprooted a nation, she stayed put, refusing to move abroad like many of her wealthy friends. When the black-clad gunmen took over her religiously mixed west Baghdad neighborhood, turning it into a killing field, she wouldn't let them drive her out of the country she loved. And even when they killed her husband, gunning him down as he left work, she fought through her grief, staying in Iraq and hoping for better times.

TIME'S up. On Jan. 10, President Bush announced a troop surge in Iraq, billed as a final effort to reestablish security and "hasten the day our troops begin coming home." But White House officials insisted that the surge wasn't an open-ended military escalation. "In the next few months, you're going to know whether or not this is working," promised Condoleezza Rice. "At six months we'll know...."

I agree with Dellums; Congress needs to rein in the dogs of war, because this Administration has manipulated the public and the media. Just look where we are: American soldiers on the front line defending a monarchy that represents political, religious and social intolerance--everything that we as a democracy denounce. Furthermore, war will not change the pricing of oil. If anything, the price will be higher after a war. What the American public doesn't realize is that either way it loses.

Re "The Power Paradox," Opinion, Oct. 6: I am far from convinced that the president and Congress have fully thought through the economic consequences of a war with Iraq. To be a strong country requires being strong militarily and financially. Our debt continues to increase within and, even more important, abroad. The economy is in trouble now, and with a long-term commitment in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Colombia and many places I'm sure the American public is not told about, I worry if we already have too much on our plate.

Young Arabs may by lining up to do battle for or against Iraq's Saddam Hussein, but America's youth so far have not responded to the call to arms, military recruiters said today. "No more than usual," said an Army recruiting officer in Durham, N.C., when asked if the Middle East crisis had inspired more enlistments. "About the same," a recruiter in Atlanta said.

Still wondering who came out on top in the Iraq crisis? The French will be only too happy to tell you: They did. "France showed that the best partners of the U.S. are those who know how to stand up to it," Alain Peyrefitte of the Academie Francaise, guardian of French culture, wrote recently. "Discreetly, without ever putting President Clinton in difficulty, it contributed to helping him avoid a terrible faux pas in holding the diplomatic door open."

The lives of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and government scientist David Kelly intersected July 17, juxtaposing disparate images that are the stuff of history. For Blair, the day brought public triumph. He gave a well-received speech in the U.S. Congress defending the war on Iraq and rhapsodizing about Anglo-American friendship and ideals. His eloquence won him repeated ovations, reminding Britons that many Americans admire their prime minister.

Stocks soared Thursday, lifting the Dow almost 270 points and sending all three major U.S. indexes to their biggest one-day gains since October, as traders pounced on speculation that a resolution of the Iraqi crisis might be near. Oil and gold prices plunged and Treasury yields surged as investors piled out of bonds and into stocks. Stock markets rallied in Europe even more strongly than in the U.S., and in Japan, stocks were up more than 2% in early trading today.

The Bush administration mounted a last-ditch effort Sunday to win public and diplomatic support for military action against Iraq, while Iraqi President Saddam Hussein countered by inviting the chief U.N. weapons inspector to Baghdad on March 17 -- America's proposed deadline for Iraq to disarm or face war. Gen. Hussam Mohammed Amin, Iraq's chief liaison to the inspectors, did not give a reason for the invitation.

During six years in office, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has proved himself a world-class politician: a communicator, a bridge-builder who convinces with the force of his convictions. But as he travels to Rome today to discuss a possible war in Iraq with an antiwar Pope John Paul II this weekend, Blair must grapple with a crisis that could have a decisive impact on his political future. Blair is the lonely man in the middle.

'All possible options for resolving the Iraq crisis by peaceful means must be thoroughly explored. Whatever decisions need to be made must be taken by the Security Council alone. It remains the only body internationally authorized to do so.'

In an effort to head off war between Iraq and the United States, the foreign ministers of six leading Islamic nations urged Baghdad on Thursday to cooperate more closely with U.N. weapons inspectors and to do its utmost to restore regional stability. "The specter of war in Iraq is looming large.

Re "The Power Paradox," Opinion, Oct. 6: I am far from convinced that the president and Congress have fully thought through the economic consequences of a war with Iraq. To be a strong country requires being strong militarily and financially. Our debt continues to increase within and, even more important, abroad. The economy is in trouble now, and with a long-term commitment in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Colombia and many places I'm sure the American public is not told about, I worry if we already have too much on our plate.